...rarely manages to knit, spin, sew or photograph at the moment as she is too busy with Spud!

Sunday, 15 June 2008

Ribbed Shrug (of Doom)

I have removed a project from my guilt pile and added it to my summer wardrobe.

It was easy to achieve in the end. I simply decided that life is too short to stuff mushrooms (as delicious as they are) or rip back, then reknit 8 inches of ribbing on 7mm circular needles to correct a too tight cast off and bagging across the back of a shrug.

Actually, in truth, I needed to go to a BBQ (friend's husband's birthday), it was after a long day of competitions and I was late. I knew that the evening would be breezy and I knew that I needed a shrug that I didn't have...

..or didn't I?

I caught sight of the green, shrug project bag in the corner, thought about my previous blog post, then decided not to fuss over perfecting something that only another knitter would spot or care about. It was quite the revelation - there are less of you than there are of everyone else!

Once I had made that mental leap, that was it - 15 mins later, the ball was cut, the ends were woven in and I was out the door...

...to drink diet coke, eat a burger and spend an hour chatting to people that I did not know very well.

In the final analysis, I am not sure that I quite cut the dash of the model in the Glamour Knits pattern styling photo (huddled next to the BBQ and trying not to catch fire while I retrieved a cooked, nutella'd banana).

But then hey - isn't that the difference between photo shoots and real life?!

The two photos to the left are pictures that I took of the shrug when I got home after the BBQ and was saying goodnight to the Fella. I miss him quite a bit you know.

In terms of feedback - on Saturday night two women asked me where I'd bought it (there were no knitters there to my knowledge), a teenager commented on what a good idea it was to wear something like it to a BBQ, how snuggly I looked and said how they wished that they had something like that to wear in their wardrobe.

A few others asked if they could touch it as it looked so soft (it is). Noone told me that it looked too baggy across the top, noone pointed out my cast off and they were all gratifyingly astonished when I told them that I had made it, not bought it! Hurrah!

At knit night last night, I went through it with my friends and we discussed how its fit could be improved if I were to knit it again. They were kind so I am reassured!

The two photos below are the ones that I took when I got home from the second day of competitions today - which I hope will help explain why I look a bit pink, yet a bit washed out!